Central Coast Council: raising awareness of disability
A VR experience that lets community members, businesses and council staff feel, briefly and safely, what everyday barriers are like from the inside.
Part of a wider access and inclusion strategy
Central Coast Council developed the experience as part of its strategy to improve Disability Access and Inclusion, particularly in business, sport and recreation.
The Council had identified a need to raise awareness across the wider community of what people with a disability face in daily life.
What the Council wanted people to feel
Empathy and a better understanding of the needs of people with a disability in everyday scenarios, for community members, businesses and the Council's own staff alike.
Not a checklist of ramps
Accessibility is usually presented as a list of physical requirements. The brief was different: help people feel what those barriers are like from the inside, briefly and safely.
A kerb, a queue and a cafe table read differently once you have met them from a wheelchair.
What PTR built
A first-person VR experience, co-designed with the Council's Access and Inclusion Reference Group, set in two ordinary public spaces: a beach and a shopping centre.
Places nobody thinks twice about
The beach and the shopping centre were chosen because most people move through them without a second thought. In each, users are prompted to reflect on the barriers a person with a disability might meet there, rather than being told about them.
How it keeps being used
Delivered across the community more than 200 times, by the Council's and PTR's count, and built into programs that run again and again rather than a single launch event.
Teachers, council staff and CSIRO sessions
The experience is used in teacher training programs, in internal council staff training, and in CSIRO-facilitated training sessions.
That gives it reach across educators, council employees and a national science agency's own training pipeline.
"Our ethos from the beginning has been about co-designing solutions alongside people with lived experiences."
Simon Lowe
CEO, People Tech Revolution. SAE University College, 2018
A recurring tool, not a one-off pilot
Because the experience lives inside programs that run every term and every intake, each new cohort of teachers, staff and CSIRO participants meets it, and the count keeps rising.
What participants said
Responses gathered after sessions, in the participants' own words.
"The experience was an incredible eye opener into the difficulties faced by people with a disability to engage in everyday activities"
Participant
Central Coast Council VR disability awareness experience
"I could really empathise and feel the real frustrations of how difficult it is of wheelchair users for things such as going to the beach, meet with your friends and have coffee The obstacles, the designs and the cultures are still not friendly enough for people with specific needs."
Participant
Central Coast Council VR disability awareness experience
"This was an excellent learning tool and think this program would be perfect in schools due to using latest technology as well as giving a real perspective on barriers and biases people with disabilities face every day"
Participant
Central Coast Council VR disability awareness experience
What a barrier feels like from the inside
A doorway a chair will not fit through, a counter too high to be seen over, a car park with nowhere to wait. These are the moments the experience is built around, and the rooms PTR builds for them.
Watch a moment of it
A short capture from inside the headset.
Not a list of ramps and requirements
Accessibility is usually presented as a list of ramps and requirements. The Council asked for something else: help people feel what those requirements are for.
Live My Experience puts community members, local businesses and Council staff into everyday scenarios from the inside, as part of the Council's strategy to improve disability access and inclusion.
Want the same kind of result for your own council or team?
Sources
The delivery count and the participant responses come from the Council's and PTR's own records of the sessions.
Central Coast Council disability awareness VR, delivery record
The session count and the participant feedback quoted above, held by the Council and PTR.
